US Navy & Japan Test & Sharpen Ballistic Missile Defense at Sea to Counter Massive Chinese Missile Attack

fsBy Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) The US and Japanese Navies are taking new steps to solidify at-sea ballistic missile defense networking, integration and target-data connectivity in an effort which could be viewed as new attempts to deter Chinese aggression in the Pacific.

Resilient Shield

Both US and Japanese warships are already equipped with an integrated missile defense and fire control system called Aegis Combat System, a suite of technologies including software, radar and the ability to launch interceptor missiles to intercept or “destroy” attacking ballistic missiles. This latest development involved a week-long annual exercise focused on US-Japanese ballistic missile defense in the Pacific called Resilient Shield. Although the US Navy and Japanese Maritime Defense Force have been allied for many years, as Japan is among the group of allied countries with the Aegis Combat System, these latest exercises both demonstrate new technological capacity and come at critical time.

“This exercise allowed us to conduct simulation training on ballistic missile countermeasures and air defense to improve tactical capabilities for comprehensive air defense missile defense and interoperability with the U.S. Navy,” said Commander, JMSDF Fleet Vice Adm. SAITO Akira, according to a US Navy report on the exercise. “Based on the strong Japan-U.S. alliance, the U.S. and Japan self-defense forces work closely together on a regular basis to strengthen deterrence and response capabilities in order to respond immediately to any contingency.”

The idea with Resilient Shield is to prepare an allied force to identify targets, process threat data and quickly and security transmit time-sensitive targeting data, a vastly improved process which enables forward positioned US and Japanese ships to disperse across wide swaths of ocean yet maintain connectivity to create a “mesh” network of maritime ballistic missile defense nodes.

The need for wide-area, networked ballistic missile defense is fast-becoming more urgent in the Pacific given the massive and fast-modernizing arsenal of ballistic missiles and anti-ship missiles. Specifically, a surprise attack on Taiwan from China would likely begin with a salvo of ballistic missiles targeting key targets on the island, given that large numbers of Chinese weapons can easily travel the 100 miles to Taiwan from mainland China. China not only has mobile launchers but also operates long-range, precision-guided anti-ship missiles such as the DF-26, a weapon often tested by the Chinese with a reported range of 2,000 miles.

Maritime ballistic missile defense, such as that demonstrated by the US Navy and Japan, could prove critical in this kind of scenario as Aegis radar could see approaching ballistic missiles, and launch SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors to knock them out from safer stand-off distances, protecting Taiwan and Navy and Japanese ships. 

In fact, upgraded SM-3 Block IIA ship-launched interceptor missiles, a program which is developing through a US Navy-Japan weapons development partnership, is more precise, larger and longer-range than previous interceptors. This improvement is quite significant because, for the first time, US Navy Aegis ships have in recent years demonstrated an ability to detect and intercept enemy ICBMs from the ocean just beyond the boundary of the earth’s atmosphere. This is a massive development as sea-based advanced BMD offers a new “node” or layer of ICBM defenses work in tandem with satellites, Ground-Based Interceptors, ground command and control and missile warning systems.